A/HRC/44/40/Add.3 educational institutions, Government-aided educational institutions or private educational institutions in rural and urban areas. Paragraph 74 Malaysia makes obtaining citizenship exceptionally difficult for those in any sort of unusual situation, including even children born to Malaysian parents. A child must have a parent with a Malaysian Identity Card to confirm citizenship. And without a valid marriage certificate, parents are often reluctant to register the birth of a child, creating barriers to citizenship. It can be difficult for parents to transmit nationality to an adopted child if a Malaysian birth certificate is not available. These largely unnecessary barriers have enormous consequences for the child’s lifelong ability to access work, education, healthcare, and social support, and to be a productive member of society. Comments from the Government of Malaysia: • Laws on citizenship in Malaysia are based on provisions under Part III of the Federal Constitution and Citizenship Rules 1964 [L.N.82/1964]. It is not awarded automatically and is subject to the application from individuals. • MOE upholds the best interest of the child under all circumstances and acknowledges the need for undocumented non-citizen children to access basic education. MOE continuously contributes towards the progress of fulfilling the rights to education to all. However, MOE has made reservations on Article 28 (a) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which requires the State parties to provide free primary education to all children regardless of their citizenship status. MOE upholds the reservation by the fact that all policies pertaining to the rights to education for undocumented non-citizen or refugee children shall be in coherent with other legislations and policies by other ministries and agencies in Malaysia. Paragraph 75 The government introduced a policy in 2009, reiterated in 2018, to allow undocumented children of Malaysian parents to access public schools, but the associated fees and additional requirements have meant that only 2,635 children benefited from the policy in 2019. Comments from the Government of Malaysia: • However, based on humanitarian grounds, to enable non-citizen children without proper documentations to get access to education, MOE has established a Policy of Alternative Education as a provision for non-citizen children to gain education in Malaysia. MOE has come up with proper guidelines for Community Learning Centre (CLC) and Alternative Learning Centre (ALC) as follows: (i) The establishment and registration of CLC which is an educational institution established by plantation owners to meet the educational needs of children of legitimate Indonesian plantation workers in Sabah and Sarawak, aged between 7 to 12 years old; and (ii) The establishment and registration of ALC to provide education to non-citizen children who are unable to gain access to formal schooling, whether in Government educational institutions, Government-aided educational institutions or private educational institutions in rural and urban areas. People with disabilities Paragraph 76 People with disabilities in Malaysia face widespread societal discrimination and obstacles that prevent them from participating in society on an equal basis with others. While World Health Organization estimates suggest that 15 percent of the global population experiences some form of disability, only 537,000 people with disabilities were registered in Malaysia as of 2019, or just 1.6 percent of the population. The Ministry unconvincingly blamed the low registration rates on individuals’ “denial” of their own disabilities, rather than insufficient outreach or registration efforts on the part of the government. 39